Beastlands
WILDERNESS OF THE BEASTLANDS It is a domain of natural savagery and plenty. It is the forest eternal. It is where the most loyal animal companions go when they die. The Wilderness of the Beastlands is a plane of nature unbound. It is a plane of forests ranging from mangroves hung heavy with moss to snowfall-laden pines to acres of sequoias 50 thick that no light penetrates their canopy. Oak, birches, spruces, firs, and maples are common here, and explorers into the plane's distant corners find great forests of giant fungi and mushrooms. There are vast deserts as well, though they are hardly barren wastelands. Cactus, aloe, and other desert plants thrive in the arid parts of the Beastlands. The air of the Beastlands is ideal for anything that grows. It is humid and warm in the swampy regions, calm and cool beneath the sequoias, breezy and clear among the beeches, and arid and hot in the more open lands. The Beastlands consists of three layers, each layer frozen at part of the day. The top layer is a place of eternal daylight, its second layer a domain of perpetual twilight, and its third layer a land of night illuminated only by a pale moon. The most important aspect of the Beastlands is how it favors animals of all kinds. Like Arcadia, it is a plane heavily populated by animals, beasts, and magical beasts. Traditional towns, cities, and strongholds are few and far between. Those who make their homes here seek to live with the trees, not against them. BEASTLANDS TRAITS The Beastlands has the following traits. � Normal Gravity. � Normal Time. � Infinite Size: The part of the Beastlands known to most visitors is relatively small, but there may be vast realms beyond it, and deities as yet undiscovered within. � Divinely Morphic: Deities can shape the plane's traits with a thought, but mortal creatures must use spells or physical effort to affect a change in the plane. � No Elemental or Energy Traits. � Mildly Good-Aligned: Evil characters suffer a –2 penalty on all Charisma-based checks. � Normal Magic. BEASTLANDS LINKS The Beastlands borders the neighboring Outer Planes of Arborea and Elysium. Natural portals between these locations are common, and shifting borders can whisk travelers from one plane to another. Often these natural portals take the form of hollow trees. Stepping within the rotted core of a lightning-blasted oak takes the traveler to Arborea, and ducking within the hollow of a toppled sequoia connects to Elysium. Portals between the layers are insubstantial and erratic, and many of them tend to be one-way. By passing between two trees or ducking beneath a branch, the light changes from day to twilight (Krigala to Brux) or from dusk to night (Brux to Karasuthra). Such portals are common, so a wanderer may find his or her way back to the top layer of the Beastlands fairly easily. The River Oceanus flows through the Beastlands on its way from Elysium to Arborea. The course of the river is straight and true across the plane, but the border between the planes is a stretch of white-water rapids. Travelers should not risk these planes with sturdy ships. BEASTLANDS INHABITANTS A variety of creatures live in the Beastlands. First and foremost are outsiders, often celestial versions of wild creatures found on the Material Plane. These celestial animals, beasts, vermin, and magical beasts inhabit every environmental niche in the Beastlands. Occasionally a nonevil aberration calls the Beastlands home, but few intelligent creatures other than magical beasts such as unicorns stay in the wilderness for long. Some sages contend the spirits of wild creatures drift after death to the Beastlands, where they are reincarnated as celestial versions of their mortal selves. Whether this is true depends upon your cosmology, but it does explain why such a huge number of celestial wild things live in the Beastlands. Celestial creatures in the Beastlands, in addition to the other traits provided by the celestial template, have their Intelligence raised to 3 and can speak Celestial. This increased Intelligence score does little to dull their natural tendencies, and the deadly dance between predator and prey continues even in this extraplanar arena. The increased Intelligence lets the prey try to bargain its way out of danger, just as it enables more effective communication within a pack of predators. Celestials are common in the Beastlands, especially the eladrin but also planetars and solars. Lillends may be found here as well. The plane is the home of many beasts of legend—superior versions of powerful animals, beasts, and magical beasts. Good-aligned lycanthropes (and their petitioner spirits after they die) can find great joy with their animal kin in the Beastlands, though they lose their lycanthrope abilities in this plane. Planar travelers are common on Krigala, Brux, and Karasuthra, mostly because there are so many portals between the layers that spreading out over all three layers is easy. Some visitors to the Beastlands are travelers moving between Elysium and Arborea. Others are sages and acolytes seeking knowledge that can only be gleaned in the darkest woods. Some are hunters from other planes seeking the beasts that populate this plane. Hunters often find themselves overmatched by the wild creatures of the Beastlands and beat a hasty retreat. The Beastlands is not a place inhabited by many deities, though it is as divinely morphic as the other planes of the Great Wheel. Deities that might establish a realm here would share a love of creatures or the wilderness itself, and their kingdoms would fit neatly into the surrounding forests. Two such deities are Ehlonna, Deity of the Woodlands, and Skerrit, the deity of the centaurs. They both have their personal kingdoms in Krigala, the Beastlands' top layer. Beastlands Petitioners Because not many deities make this plane their home, mortal souls drawn to the Beastlands primarily arrive based on their philosophy: good and just a bit on the side of freedom over order. They usually live in small communities at the bases of great trees, leading simple lives in harmony with the other creatures of the plane. These petitioners take on animal traits soon after they arrive. Their hair grows long in lustrous pelts, short horns sprout from their foreheads, and they develop cats' eyes or fox ears. Over the course of centuries, they become celestial beasts or animals. Beastlands petitioners have the following special petitioner qualities: Additional Immunities: Electricity, poison. Resistances: Cold 20, fire 20. Other Special Qualities: Fast healing 2. MOVEMENT AND COMBAT The Beastlands does not present any worse penalty to movement than any Material Plane forest or woods. Creatures with the ability to climb or brachiate (swing among the branches) are able to move through the Beastlands without touching the ground. The Beastlands does not present any inherent benefit or penalty to combat, thought cover and concealment are plentiful. beastladnsFEATURES OF THE BEASTLANDS The Beastlands is divided into three layers: a land of eternal day known as Krigala on the top, a territory of dusk called Brux in the middle, and a moonlit place of fireflies and wandering stars, Karasuthra, on the bottom. Krigala The Beastlands' top layer is Krigala, split in two by the River Oceanus. The river flows through the layer in a strong torrent, flanked by verdant forests that often bridge the great river with intertwined branches above. Small side channels depart from the river, and there are I numerous bayous and oxbow lakes formed whenever this extraplanar river alters its banks. Krigala is a land of eternal afternoon. A warm sun basks the land in its continual glow. It is just warm enough in Krigala for the plant life of the area, and temperatures remain in a comfortable range unless manipulated by spells or divine will. Time passes normally but is not tracked by the moving of the sun. Instead, gentle rains drift in on soft breezes once per day. More rarely, occasional thunderstorms strike, sending many of Krigala's beasts to cover. The centaur deity Skerrit lives in Krigala with his closest petitioners. Skerrit is a lesser deity, but he is greatly venerated by the centaurs. The deity's realm looks little different from the surrounding woods, and the homes of his petitioners are often small huts and lean-tos. When a feast is called (and that's often if you're a centaur), the centaurs set out great tables in the midst of the forest, trusting to Krigala's benign nature and Skerrit's power to keep them in line. Skerrit's petitioners take centaur form but are otherwise similar to other Beastlander petitioners. They attack as centaurs do (two hooves at a +3 attack bonus, dealing 1d6+2 points of damage). In extreme cases, Skerrit might arm them, but such events are exceedingly rare. Most of the creatures encountered in Krigala would be active during the day if they lived on the Material Plane. Most of the native life has a basic understanding of how me portals between the layers work, and they can avoid the portals instinctively if they choose. The Grove of the Unicorns: Deep within the Beastlands is the realm of Ehlonna, deity of forests and woodlands. The grove sits at the base of a cluster of great sequoias that form a natural cathedral for those beneath the canopy. The lowest branches of the great redwoods are hundreds of feet in the air, such that those with wings can fly through Ehlonna's cathedral without difficulty. Those who reside within the borders of Ehlonna's realm live in peace with the trees and animals, and they are similarly left alone by the wild creatures. The thinking creatures of the Beastlands adore Ehlonna, such that she is often aware of occurrences that happen far from her Realm. True to its name, the grove attracts groups of unicorns. These are both unicorns with the celestial template and half-celestial/half-unicorns (as described in the Monster Manual). In addition, there are flocks of bariaurs in Ehlonna's service. The grove is not far from Skerrit's realm; centaur petitioners are found in Ehlonna's realm and half-celestial/half-unicorns in Skerrit's. Ehlonna has taken advantage of the Beastlands' divinely morphic trait to give her realm the enhanced magic trait. All spells cast by rangers within the Grove of the Unicorns are extended (as the Extend Spell feat), and all spells that create food or water are maximized (as the Maximize Spell feat). Ehlonna has the power to make other alterations to the traits within her realm, if she so desires. Brux Brux is the second layer of the Beastlands and a land of eternal dusk. The sun is a red ball along the horizon, casting long, ruddy shadows through the forest. Where it can be seen above the trees, a silvered moon hovers low over the opposite horizon. Time passes normally on this layer, but newcomers often get the eerie sense that the world is frozen at sunset. Brux is slightly cooler than Krigala, and fogs and mists roil through the trees. The animal life on Brux is active in morning and evening, sleeping during the heat of the day and getting food when the sun is low in the sky. Travelers who find themselves on Brux by accident may find their way back to Krigala by following the creeks and streams. Many of them lead eventually to Oceanus; others lead to boggy marshes and swamps. Karasuthra The lowest layer of the Beastlands, Karasuthra wears a cloak of continual night. A silver moon whose phases change achingly slowly hangs in the open sky, surrounded by stars that lazily drift across the sky. Only a few beacons of moonlight piece the thick canopy of the forest here, forming silver shafts that touch the forest floor. Karasuthra is the home of the most dangerous night creatures, hunters relentless in the pursuit of their quarry. Hunters from the Material Plane sometimes journey to Karasuthra looking for the most dangerous of trophies. Some even survive to try a second time. If you've designed a cosmology in which the Plane of Shadow is coterminous to or coexistent with the Beastlands, Karasuthra's darkness makes it a convenient arrival point from that plane. In such a cosmology, dusk beasts, ecalypses, and umbral banyans could be found throughout Karasuthras, as could shadow versions of animals and beasts (created by applying the shadow creature template). Evil-aligned creatures would be uncomfortable in the Beasdands and hunted mercilessly by the many celestial creatures that catch their scent. But desperate evildoers could use Karasuthra as a hiding place from other, more foul creatures on their home plane. Spell alterations in the Beastlands Air, wind, and weather spells fail. This includes "fly" and "feather fall". Conjurations and summonings bring only the local animals, which are not under control. In fact, no spell that controls animals will work here. Divinations cannot contact supernatural or extraplanar beings. Spells directed against "normal animals" fail. Harmful necromancy is cast at one level lower. Fire spells are enhanced on the noonday layer and diminished on the night layer. Other elemental spells may be enhanced or weakened by the terrain. Spell keys might be available to reach off-plane sources of information, but other uses seem improbable. Wizardly spell keys are natural objects. "Elemental aura" requires stones and pebbles. Alterations require blown leaves. Conjuration-Summonings require a bit of food that the animal will like. Divinations are in silver ore. Enchantments and charms require quartz crystals. "Whispering wind" requires a feather. Cloud-evocations require a treebranch struck by lightning. Necromancy requires a bone. Power keys are rare and appropriate to the sect; one uses a snow-globe. Third edition "Manual of the Planes" focuses primarily on simplifying and encouraging individual campaign creativity. Ideas include: * The suggested color for pools from the astral is emerald. Ethereal curtains might be emerald green. * The dead are immune to electricity and poison, have cold resistance 20 and fire resistance 20, and as an additional ability have fast healing. * The plane is "mildly good-aligned". Evil creatures have -2 on charisma checks. I respectfully suggest that the Beastlands be regarded as chaotic-tending and thoroughly good. These effects are additive -1 on all charimsa checks for all lawful creatures -1 on all intelligence, wisdom, and charisma checks for all non-good, non-evil creatures -2 on all intelligence, wisdom, and charisma checks for all evil creatures. Good-based spells work as if caster were 4 levels higher. Evil-based spells simply fail. Law-based spells (non-evil) require a Spellcraft check (DC 15) for success. Chaos-based spells (non-evil) work as if caster were 2 levels higher. Beastlands